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Comment by gautamdivgi | Hacker News Reader

Incorrect. Hinduism has had Sankhya Yoga which adopts a “rationalistic” approach and at some points in its existence has questioned the existence of God (Ishvara) [0].

I think Buddhism and Taoism are atheistic as well. This is my assumption though and I will be happy to be corrected.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya#Views_on_God

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Buddha himself was a Hindu and believed in God, many gods.

Hinduism believes in God. Many gods in fact and the concept of a cosmic intelligence.

Have you not heard of Bhakti or devotional yoga?

I am a practicing Hindu. Yes, I’ve heard of all of those and Bhakti is but one school of thought. But Hinduism has always had space for other schools of thought. Sankhya is one of them. It does not have a lot of adherents but it does exist. About many God’s in Hinduism - It’s one God (Brahman or Truth) but its different forms as perceived by humans based on the agency/actions of God.

Yes you are right. There are materialists coming out of the Vedas.

But what you have just stated here is that you are not an atheist at all. In fact quite the opposite. You are that.

I don’t practice Sankhya. My ancestral / traditional school is Advaita Vedanta which is actually opposed to Sankhya :). My point being not all atheism is recent or non-sprititual. Most eastern faiths have a rationalistic component / school of thought which is atheistic but continue to rely on methods of meditation and logic to better oneself.

Advaita Vedanta believes in the concept of God and cosmic consciousness.

Yes but it is a path equally of the mind and the heart.

You seem to believe that it is only a path of the mind. This is a misconception about Advaita.

The mind cannot reach the goal by itself. The goal is beyond mind.

You will never reach it without the heart. Advaita is very clear on this.

One’s lack of belief in it will pretty much guarantee they never get that invite.

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